Hangul Syllable Kwi

By itself, 퀴 gives a Korean syllable sound, not a fixed word meaning. It sounds roughly like “kwi,” starting with an aspirated k—a k released with extra breath. In 퀴즈, the Korean spelling of “quiz,” it is the first syllable.

퀴 combines the consonant ㅋ and the vowel ㅟ. These Korean letters, called jamo, are arranged together as one syllable block; ㅟ is written from ㅜ followed by ㅣ.

Hangul was created in 1443, and a guide to the writing system, Hunminjeongeum, appeared in 1446. It was designed to represent spoken Korean with letters arranged into syllable blocks. Before Hangul, Chinese characters and adapted spellings were used to write Korean. The consonant ㅋ has its own history: its use in Korean words changed across the 15th and 16th centuries as words were reshaped and borrowed. That is the history of ㅋ, not a separate meaning for 퀴.

How do you type 퀴?

On a standard Korean keyboard, enter ㅋ, then ㅜ and ㅣ. A Korean input method editor (IME)—the software that assembles Korean letters—combines them as you type. On Dubeolsik, the standard Korean two-set layout, press z for ㅋ, then n and l for ㅜ and ㅣ; the IME joins those vowels into ㅟ and displays 퀴. Other layouts assign different keys.

Fonts can draw 퀴 with different strokes or proportions, but it remains the same Hangul syllable.